Ghostbusters 30th Anniversary: 5 Things You Didn't Know About the Film

Who ya gonna call?

Ivan Reitman's comedy classic about ghosts and ghouls turns 30 on June 7, and the cult series still lives in the heart of those who watched. Again, who ya gonna call?

Ghostbusters!

Here are 5 things that you didn't know about the show, as documented by the Telegraph :

Trivia #1

Screenwriter Dan Aykroyd originally wanted to call the futuristic epic "Ghost Smashers" where teams are geared to battle giant monsters. But Aykrord's original draft was so long and very expensive (the budget was $300 million, and this was way back in 1984) that Reitman called in someone else to make a shorter draft and called it "Ghostbusters". Due to an already existing TV show of the same title, they almost called it "Ghoststoppers" as an alternative, but copyright issues were resolved, and the name "Ghostbusters" was saved.

Trivia #2

Slimer was referred as "Onion Head" on set, and the bright green ghoul's moniker, "Slimer", was actually given by the audience after the film was released. It's a bit difficult to have him in high-speed whizzing scenes, though, so at one point, the animation supervisor used a spray-painted peanut in one of the scenes.

Trivia #3

The famous "Ghostbusters" logo was designed by one of the producers, which saved the team thousands of dollars for an artist. The designer, Michael C. Gross, also previously worked as an art consultant for the "Muppets", and as an art director on the magazine, National Lampoon. With talent like that, no wonder they did not need outside help.

Trivia #4

The script for "Ghostbusters" came from Aykroyd's family. His great-grandfather was a participant in the spiritualist craze in the 19^th century, and his father published a book titled, "A History of Ghosts: The True Story of Séances, Mediums, Ghosts, and Ghostbusters." His mother, on the other hand, still considers herself a skeptic.

Trivia #5

Who ya gonna call? The famous 555 number on the film was replaced by a 1-800 number on the original trailer, which lead to a recording of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, and got a thousand calls an hour, 24/7 for six weeks.